


someday you'll return

by ObscureReference



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Bittersweet, Dreams, Dreamsharing, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26329081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReference/pseuds/ObscureReference
Summary: “Hello, lazy daisy,” Laslow said, smiling, his arms loosely wrapped around his knees.Xander sat up. A clump of something soft and cool was squished under his palms as he pushed himself upright.Flowers, he realized. Tiny golden things he’d crushed underhand. Nothing like them had ever grown in Nohr, but Xander had seen them a lot as of late.“Laslow,” he said.Except that wasn’t what Xander was supposed to call him. Laslow had a different name these days. A real name, to match his real appearance. Xander had stumbled in the transition, however, and Laslow had never corrected him, although the corners of his mouth quirked whenever Xander called him that.
Relationships: Lazward | Laslow/Marx | Xander
Comments: 18
Kudos: 93





	someday you'll return

“Hello, lazy daisy,” Laslow said, smiling, his arms loosely wrapped around his knees.

Xander sat up. A clump of something soft and cool was squished under his palms as he pushed himself upright.

Flowers, he realized. Tiny golden things he’d crushed underhand. Nothing like them had ever grown in Nohr, but Xander had seen them a lot as of late.

“Laslow,” he said.

Except that wasn’t what Xander was supposed to call him. Laslow had a different name these days. A real name, to match his real appearance. Xander had stumbled in the transition, however, and Laslow had never corrected him, although the corners of his mouth quirked whenever Xander called him that.

He corrected himself. “Inigo.”

Laslow—

Inigo—

 _Laslow_ tilted his head.

He’d said once before that he felt more like Laslow when they were together. Xander still wasn’t entirely sure what that meant.

“You’re late,” Laslow teased. “You never let it slide when I was tardy under your employ, and yet now you make me wait almost constantly.”

“My apologies,” Xander said. Something tickled at the edge of his temple, and he stayed still as Laslow plucked a loose flower from his hair, rolling the stem back and forth between the tips of his fingers. “The time difference is not in our favor.”

“I think it has more to do with you not going to bed until the late hours of the morning.”

“Possibly that as well,” Xander admitted. Laslow hummed like he’d won. “Life has been quite… busy, as of late. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”

Laslow’s smile fell. “It’s fine. It’s not like I’m going anywhere anyway.” He dropped the flower into the grass, where it disappeared among hundreds of its brethren. “Have you been doing alright?”

“Nothing to worry about,” Xander said. He mostly meant it. “My days are primarily taken up with paperwork as of late. And patrols at the boarder need to be picked up because of mercenary groups who don’t know what to do with themselves without a war. Building stronger ties with Hoshido takes up a lot of my attention as well.” He shook his head. “But nothing strenuous.”

Laslow squinted like he didn’t believe him. “Not neglecting yourself, are you?”

“You realize I’m a grown man,” Xander reminded him. “I’m more than capable of taking care of myself when you’re not there.”

“But who will cover you with blankets when you fall asleep at your desk? Or spike your tea with sleeping draughts when you stay up for days at a time?”

“Peri,” Xander said. Then: “You used to spike my tea?”

“Anyway,” Laslow said quickly, looking away, “don’t go running yourself into the ground. Nohr can’t recover without you there to guide everyone.”

“My siblings are more than capable of taking over my duties, if and when I am out of commission,” Xander said, but he understood what Laslow was trying to tell him. “I appreciate the concern, all the same.”

“How did that meeting go with Lord Ryoma, by the way?”

“It’s still a week away,” Xander said. Time moved differently for both of them; he wondered how long it had been for Laslow since they had last seen each other. “Although Corrin did give Kaze leave to reside in Krakenburg for the duration of the visit. He arrived from Valla this morning.”

“Of course he did.” Laslow smiled and shook his head. “And I’m sure Saizo will show up a day before the delegation is set to arrive too. To ‘scope things out’ or something.”

Xander raised an eyebrow. “You think he has another motive?”

“I think it’s nice that they’ll get to spend some time together before duty calls,” Laslow said. “You know, Saizo would never admit it, but you can tell he loves his brother a lot.”

“That’s not so strange. They are family, after all.”

“I know.” Laslow rolled his eyes. “It’s just. _Saizo._ ”

It was a little strange to think of Ryoma’s stoic retainer and Laslow as being friends, although of course Xander would never have stood for any active malice between them once they joined forces during the war. Hadn’t Laslow complained of Saizo attacking him out of the blue once or twice? And then begrudgingly coming to respect him later? He didn’t quite understand their relationship, but clearly Laslow felt a fondness for the man. It made Xander want to pay more attention to Saizo when he arrived, if only because he knew Laslow would have wanted to do the same.

He realized he had been quiet for too long.

“And what about you?” Xander asked. “What have you been doing recently?”

“Oh, you know.” Laslow waved his hand, although of course Xander did not know. Had no way of knowing and no frame of reference for so many of the things Laslow told him these days. “Severa’s still got us running all over Valm for every odd job she thinks is worth our time.”

“Do you almost have enough to buy yourselves passage?” Xander tried to remember the name of the place they were headed. “To Plegia?”

“Almost,” Laslow confirmed. “But if it means traveling all the way southern tip of the continent _again_ , just to walk all the way back north to reach that big harbor before winter hits…” He flopped back into the flowers and groaned. “Please, milord, just cut off my legs now and save me the trouble.”

Xander chuckled. “I know for a fact that when you were here, Corrin and I had you running around just as much as you’re doing now.”

Laslow cracked his eyes open.

“Well, sure,” he admitted. “But at least I got to come back to you every time the mission was over with.”

It was such a painfully honest statement—so par for the course for Laslow—that Xander momentarily felt as though he’d been punched in the chest. Laslow’s face fell a moment after the words left his mouth.

“Well.” Xander breathed out through his nose. “In any case, I’m sure you’re more than capable of making it work.”

“Yeah,” Laslow said, notably less enthusiastic. “It’ll be fine.”

Silence stretched between them.

Xander tried to remember the description of the landmasses Laslow had shared with him before. He had tried to draw a picture once, but it was hard to get to the dirt under the thick layer of greenery lining the ground and Laslow was no artist anyway. So all Xander had to go on was the rudimentary chart he’d mentally drawn in his head.

Last time they’d talked, Laslow had reported that he, Selena, and Odin, were somewhere around the northwest portion of the continent they’d found themselves in after vanishing from Valla. Valm, was it? Were they still there? Or had they made it further down the coast already?

What did that far-off land look like, Xander wondered. What troubles had they run into?

Who were the people who got to see Laslow, when Xander himself could not?

“ _Anyway_ ,” Laslow said loudly, flopping over onto his stomach and looking up at Xander between his lashes. “We talked it over again, and a letter would just take way too long to reach Nah, even assuming she’d get a reply back to us before the winter storms. So we’re definitely going to end up in Ylisse before spring, just so you know.”

Xander didn’t know enough about any of the lands Laslow named to have an opinion on that, but he appreciated the information all the same. “Why charter a boat to Plegia if you’ll be going to Ylisse?”

“Plegia’s too large to sail around,” Laslow sighed. “I guess we could theoretically sail around the southern tip, but that’ll cost twice as much as just sailing east. Much easier just to cross the continent on foot, even if it adds several weeks to the journey. Although I’m not looking forward to finding out if the general populace still worships evil dragons…”

Xander shook his head. “You come from a strange land.”

“Pot, meet kettle,” Laslow teased. “It took me the first two years of living in Nohr before I got used to everything! I mean, cat-rabbit hybrids? Lands that are sunny or cloudy for a decade at a time? Come _on_.”

“And yet we do not worship evil dragons.”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “We did have to fight one while I was in Nohr, though. And _our_ royalty doesn’t have dragon blood in their veins.”

“But you do have a dragon deity that occasionally speaks to you,” Xander said.

“She usually only speaks to Nah!” Laslow defended.

“Your dragonkin friend.”

They looked at each other. Laslow laughed, face pressed against his forearms in the grass and cheeks pink. Xander allowed himself to crack a smile as well. A levity that had evaded him all afternoon came to rest on his shoulders.

They spoke more freely now than they had when Laslow was in Nohr. When he had been in Xander’s direct employ. The distance between them had surprisingly been kind to their relationship—at least in that sense.

It had felt very isolating in many others.

“It always comes back to dragons, one way or another,” Laslow said when his chuckles subsided. “We deserve a break. No dragons allowed to cause trouble for a full year, at least.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to relax a little once you reach home,” Xander said, although he had no idea if that were true.

“Maybe. I’m sure something ridiculous will happen to make sure we’re as stressed as possible while we’re there, though.”

Although the words were bleak, Laslow’s tone was light. Whether or not he meant what he was saying, he seemed used to the prospect of trouble.

He reached out and nudged Xander’s leg. “And I meant that _you_ deserve a vacation too, you know. You work harder than anybody”

The idea of a vacation was a foreign but not wholly unpleasant thought. “Perhaps.”

“Aw, don’t give me that!” Laslow pushed himself onto his forearms and made a face. “I can’t force you to do anything while I’m not htere, but I’m not above begging, milord! You won’t take even an afternoon off? Not even for your favorite retainer?”

“We could take a short vacation,” Xander murmured, “when you get back.”

Laslow stilled. He lowered his face into his forearms, small bushels of flowers partly obscuring his face.

Almost too quiet to hear, he said, “Yeah. I’ll hold you to that.”

Xander reached out to—do _something_ , he was sure, but he ended up caressing the ends of Laslow’s rosy hair instead.

The color suited him.

“It’s funny,” Laslow said without looking at him. He traced the delicate tips of the flower petals with a finger. “I spent… so much of my time in Nohr missing home. Wanting to go back. Worrying that I’d been forgotten.” He glanced up at Xander. “And now that I’m here, I only keep thinking of you.”

Xander’s chest tightened. “Laslow.”

Laslow reached up and encircled Xander’s wrist with his fingers. After a moment, he squeezed.

Xander twisted his hand around and squeezed him back.

The smile that broke out across Laslow’s face was as blinding as it was undoubtedly fake. “Ah, what am I saying? Getting all melancholy like that for no reason. Sorry. I’ll be—”

“Laslow,” Xander said again. “Sit up.”

He hesitated for only a moment. Then Laslow scrambled to push himself upright, expression eager and bashful all at once.

“Xander,” he breathed, the lines of his mouth uncertain.

Xander reached for him—

His sat up in darkness, arms instinctively wrapping around the air in front of him. The blanket pooled around his waist.

He realized, after a beat, that he was sitting upright, alone in bed. He kept his head bowed anyway, hands resting on open air. His ribs tightened dangerously around his lungs.

He couldn’t feel the ghost of Laslow’s body pressed against him, nor the phantom press of his cool nose against the column of Xander’s throat. It was a struggle for Xander to pretend otherwise; he had never been the creative type. He tried anyway.

Closing his eyes didn’t make a difference. Whether open or closed, there was only darkness in his bedroom. It was late. The moon had vanished from the sky as well.

Laslow and the fields of gold had vanished.

Finally, he let his arms fall back to his sides. The mattress under his hands felt stiff and cold. Nothing like golden flowers warmed by the sun.

Xander laid back in bed and ran a hand over his tired eyes. Sleep clung to the dark corners of his brain, but already he was forgetting details of their shared dream: where Laslow had said they were headed next, if he’d mentioned his parents again or not. If he’d said he was unhurt. If Xander had even asked.

The general impression Xander had was that it had been mostly a pleasant dream. If something seriously concerning had come to light, surely he would have remembered it even upon waking.

But for the details of the meeting Xander had craved so badly over the last few days to be forgotten so quickly, like they had come from just another dream…

His only solace was that he’d surely meet Laslow again in another few days. They would both be fine until then. Laslow was a grown man. He’d taken care of himself long before he’d met Xander, and he was doing just fine now. Especially with Odin and Selena at his side.

If there was anyone in any dimension who could figure out how to hop realities a second time, it would certainly be them.

Xander would just have to be patient until then.

He breathed out. The pillow under his head felt lumpy and uncomfortable. He told himself to stop being dramatic.

He could be patient.

Xander had lived through a lot more than loneliness before, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Me @ Me: AU where Trio get sent back to the Mila Tree after defeating Anankos and they have no choice in the matter but they maintain a connection to some of the most important people they met in Nohr bc Magic
> 
> Mostly inspired by the mental image of Xander going in for a hug and it's just him blinking awake in a dark room, holding open air because Laslow isn't there.
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment below or hit me up on my [tumblr!](http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/)


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